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UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

STEPHEN F. VAN HAGEN, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE KILBOURNE, OF SAME PLAGE.

BANJO.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,872, dated October 18, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN F. VAN HAGEN, of the city of Albany, State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in the Construction of the Musical Instrument known as the Banjo; and I declare that the following specication, with the drawings hereto attached as part of the same, is a full and complete description of my invention, which I have named the Dolce Campana Guitar-Banjo.7

The banjo as at present constructed is a feeble instrument, its music forming a trifling accompaniment to other instruments, or the voice, and capable of being used to the extent of only one, or atmost two scales of music. From the peculiar construction of its body, open below, and of tensely stretched parchment above, it is highly resonant and gives out to the best advantage all the sound of its strings. On the contrary the guitar from the number of its strings, and from the peculiar construction of its neck divisible by frets (so called) into intervals of the musical scale, affords the means of adapting its sounds to all the scales within the compass of music. But its body of wood inclosing the vibrating air within a chamber and only affording escape therefrom by a small opening in its upper surface has scarcely any resonance at all, so that the body of its sound is very much less than thatof the banjo, and much less effective, so as to be scarcely of any worth excepting as an accompaniment to the human voice.

My object is to combine the best points of these two instruments. I therefore, as shown in Figure l which is a perspective view of my instrument, propose to unite the banjo body A, A, (which is covered, as usual, on the upper side B with parchment, but is entirely open on its under side;) with the guitar-neck C divided into musical intervals by the frets or small cross strips f, f, and is constructed in the usual manner. For the purpose of giving to the instrument the banjo character and tone when wanted, I add to the guitar arrangement of siX strings, a seventh t being a thumb string, iitted like that string is in the banjo.

The banjo is made with a cylindrical body as shown in Fig. 2 which represents the body reversed and shown in plan. rIhe neck C is affixed to the body vertically as shown in Fig. l by a knee formed terminus D which holds it firmly against the entire front of the body, the knee being secured'to the bar G which passes through the body of the instrument, and by which it is keyed by 7c to the front of the body. This answers sufficiently well with the banjo whose strings do not require to be screwed up very sharply; but when used as a guitar the proper tuning of it requires a greater tension on the strings, so much so as to cause its thin body to yield and change its shape, injuring its musical qualities. To obviate this I shape the body of my instrument, so that its horizontal section shall be oval, the rear part of it being nearly circular, and the front acute oval or lancet shaped as shown in Fig. l, and in Fig. 3 which shows the body reversed and in plan, and partof the neck. The knee D rests against the pointed front to which it is fitted and secured and which will resist great pressure without change of form.

IVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination in one instrument, of the banjo, parchment covered open body, with the neck and fretted linger board of the guitar; the thumb string of the banjo, being added to the usual strings of the guitar, substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth in the within specication.

Q. I also claim the formation of the front part of the body of the instrument, of an acute oval or lancetform, in the manner and for the purposes set forth in the within specification.

S. F. VAN HAGEN.

Witnesses:

RioHD. VANE DE IVITT, A. V. DE VITT. 

